Abstract. The proton elastic scattering data on 4,6,8 He and 6,7,9,11 Li nuclei at energies below 160 MeV/nucleon are analyzed using the optical model. The optical potential (OP) is taken microscopically, with few and limited fitting parameters, using the single folding model for the real part and high-energy approximation (HEA) for the imaginary one. Clear dependencies of the volume integrals on energy and rms radii are obtained from the results. The calculated differential and the reaction cross sections are in good agreement with the available experimental data. In general, this OP with few and limited fitting parameters, which have a systematic behavior with incident energy and matter radii, successfully describes the proton elastic scattering data with stable and exotic light nuclei at energies up to 160 MeV/nucleon.